This account is pending registration confirmation. Please click on the link within the confirmation email previously sent you to complete registration.Need a new registration confirmation email? Click here

The advent of technologies such as 4G, coupled with a fiercely competitive smartphone market, is fueling an atmosphere of intense patent paranoia, say experts.

Recent events prove that patent paranoia is alive and well in Silicon Valley.

"We're at a transition point in the wireless world," Ron Gruia, principal telecom analyst at
Frost & Sullivan, told
TheStreet. "We have the move to 4G and the
near field communication (NFC) market beginning to grow for mobile payments,
so
there are all these developments that are happening, and it's conducive to all this patent activity."

Nortel's 4G LTE technology has already garnered lots of attention, and a host of other patents, including wireless video, Wi-Fi, Internet search and social networking, are reportedly up for grabs.
Google(GOOG) secured the $900 million opening bid for the Nortel IP treasure trove, but a host of other tech heavyweights, including Apple,
Intel(INTC - Get Report) and
Ericsson(ERIC), have reportedly joined the fray.

Google is the highest-profile patent bidder, noting that Nortel's technology will help it fend off any future patent litigation. Essentially, a large arsenal of patents boost a tech company's ability to counter-sue in the event of patent disputes.

Alexander Poltorak, CEO of IP firm
General Patent Corp., believes that the patent paranoia is driven largely by market forces. "I don't think that it's the technology driving the patent feeding frenzy," he told
TheStreet. "It's jostling for position in the marketplace that drives the patent world."

Poltorak points to smartphone arena, where market share has shifted rapidly thanks to the rise of Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices. "This shift in tectonic plates is forcing companies to see if they can bolster their revenue by extracting some revenue from their rivals," he said, pointing to
Nokia's(NOK - Get Report) recent
patent settlement with Apple. "Nokia lost market share to Apple,
but
they tried to gain some advantage by asserting their patent portfolio against Apple."

Earlier this month, Nokia said that it had
resolved its patent spat with Apple over smartphone technology, with the iPhone maker making a one-time payment to the Finnish firm and paying royalties going forward. The deal was a big positive for Nokia, whose next big smartphone move is not expected until next year, when its first handsets powered by Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will debut en masse.

Product Features:

To begin commenting right away, you can log in below using your Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, OpenID or Yahoo login credentials. Alternatively, you can post a comment as a "guest" just by entering an email address. Your use of the commenting tool is subject to multiple terms of service/use and privacy policies - see here for more details.